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Florida Animation Festival returns to Tallahassee

Upon living in Tallahassee these past three years, I’ve learned that this humble state capital is more than politics and southern hospitality, but also a hub of activity for talented people in every capacity.

Upon living in Tallahassee these past three years, I’ve learned that this humble state capital is more than politics and southern hospitality, but also a hub of activity for talented people in every capacity. This can be clearly seen when these groups gather together, like during First Fridays at Railroad Square. Last week I had the opportunity to see the talents of local filmmakers at the second annual four-day Florida Animation Festival.

Kicking off on Thursday night, the festival hit the ground running by showing off the talents of the FSU Film School’s animation program by screening four of their animated shorts. This truly showed the talent of our nationally recognized film school by showcasing the different styles in animation and storytelling that the students utilized in their films, from a short that utilizes rotoscope animation to a video game that can utilize Virtual Reality.

“It was a half semester of pre-production and storytelling,” said FSU Animation Senior Parker McBain about the making of his short “Failures of an Alchemist.” “I guess you could say it was kind of a solo project where I was the director, and the producer and the cinematographer, but I had a lot of help from my peers and teachers along the way. I think one of the biggest inspirations for this film was me having to discover my artistic voice and discover who I am as an animator and a filmmaker.”

Throughout the festival, we got to see a lot of this. One of the major draws of this festival is that it’s such an amalgamation of talents, since the festival received over 300 submissions from around the world from all different skill levels and walks of life. So we were able to see a student animator’s first film in which they find their niche played before a veteran of the crafts 601st film. This way of presentation really puts into perspective that art is ongoing process that artists are constantly improving in.

The following day, we got to see what a master of the craft does with a talk from the Film School’s very own Jason Maurer, an established animator and director who has worked with the Sci-Fi Channel and the Weather Channel, as well as co-directing the animated feature Delgo with the voice work of Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love-Hewitt, Val Kilmer, Malcolm McDowell and FSU’s very own Burt Reynolds.

In this talk, Maurer expertly gave his lecture about the importance of sound in an animated film by going through a brief history of sounds influence on early Disney and Warner Brothers animations, before going into his own personal experience with sound on Delgo, from sound effects to voice work from the A-List actors mentioned above. This pairs well with another talk given by the Academy Award winning special effects director of Hugo Jonathan Stone the following day.

Stone currently works as the Head of Digital Production for the College of Motion Picture Arts at Florida State University. However, before coming to the University, he worked for companies such as CafeFx and Pixomondo where he gained experience in production and post-production work, and led teams to produce visual effects for movies such as Shutter Island, Aviator, and Spy Kids II. Though his resume is expansive, his talk at this year’s animation festival focused on one movie in particular: Hugo.

Directed by Martin Scorsese, Hugo went on to win five Academy Awards in 2012: Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects. At the time of its production, Stone worked as the senior visual effects producer for Pixomondo (the company hired to produce visual effects for the film), making him one of the leaders on the team for Hugo’s Award-Winning visual effects.

Stone explained that producing visual effects for a film, especially one like Hugo, is much more complicated than people might think. Over the course of nine months, over 400 artists worldwide worked together to create over 862 shots, leading to a grand total of $15-$16 million worth of visual effects.

After detailing some of the work that went into creating the visual effects for Hugo, Stone showed us the actual demo reel that was sent to the Academy, the same reel that led to the eventual Oscar victories. Upon watching this reel again and being reminded of all the sleepless nights and hours spent away from home, Stone joked that he was now “growing more gray hair.”

The festival ended on Sunday with a selection of short films created by aspiring filmmakers from around the world. Committee members condensed thirty hours-worth of content into an hour to show to the audience on the final day.

The films selected represented a variety of animation and narrative styles and touched on subjects such as love, mental health and friendship. Audience members were asked to vote for their favorite films, and were given the opportunity to meet three of the fourteen filmmakers represented before leaving the festival.

The films we consume are more than just big-name actors and directors trying to tell a story. They are passion projects put together by teams of artists all over the world intent on moving audiences and making them feel something, whatever that feeling may be. So, the next time you take a cutie on a movie date, make sure to sit back and watch the credits in full, and try to appreciate the work that went into making all of the magic that just unfolded in front of you.